There are some types of terrorist bombs that can be set off to explode remotely by, e.g., calling a mobile station, such as a cellular telephone, to which the bomb is connected. For example, many bombs may be set to explode when an element of the mobile station is excited. Some bombs are set off when a call is made to the mobile station and a ringer of the mobile station makes an audible sound or vibrates. Other types of bombs can be triggered by an occurrence of certain audible noise during the middle of a call.
To prevent the possibility of a mobile station with a bomb from being remotely detonated, wireless service is currently selectively shut down to a geographical area in certain circumstances. For example, if there is a threat that terrorists may set off a bomb on a subway train platform, wireless service to the geographical area containing the subway train platform can be disabled. This, however, can cut off wireless service in adjacent areas. In the event that the subway train platform represents only a portion of the entire geographical area serviced by a base station for which service is disabled, mobile stations in the rest of the geographical area will also not be provided wireless service even though they are in an area that is not at a high risk of being attacked with a remotely detonated bomb.
Such remotely activated bombs are typically activated only upon receiving a call and having an element of a mobile station to which the bomb is connected vibrate. Accordingly, another problem with current systems is that they completely disable all wireless service so that a mobile station can neither contact nor be contacted by another wireless or hard-wired device. It is inefficient, however, to prevent a mobile station in the selected area from initiating a communication, because the bomb would be set off from an incoming communication, not an outgoing communication.
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